Just a heads up to all it appears that the old player is gone from 8.12, at least on the Firestick – So you might want to block updates until this is fixed. I blocked it on my Shield as I don’t want to risk losing the old player there.
Here’s what I did after one of the recent updates completely screwed my Plex installation to the point where it wouldn’t even launch and then afterwards it magically fixed this issue too (mostly).
I cleared cache and app data and reset Plex up. I then disabled resolution switching to try it, which before was crashing the app. Since then everything has been working fine… Apart from resolution switching obviously as have to have it off, which I ideally need back as my TV only supports 3D content in 1080p so I have to switch the SHIELD manually if I need that.
Might be worth trying this.
I updated my Shield Plex client to 8.12.1.22702(73b01953), and this appears to be resolved. Not sure if that was on purpose, or a byproduct of some other change. Either way, all is working as expected for me now.
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Seems fixed here too even with resolution switching on. Finally! 
I still need to change the Display Mode to Stretched the Plex client, where it used to automatically work, but at I can watch SD content again.
I am having the postage stamp issue as well… everything I have tried just does not help matters.
This is really bad and not giving me much confidence with Plex…
I have installed Kodi on my Shield and have been using it to play 480 and 720 files… and if not fixed by Plex soon, I will bail completely on Plex and not give it the high marks and recommendations I have in the past to friends and family.
Get it fixed Plex.
Player: 8.12.4.22902
Server: 1.21.3.4015
Android TV OS build: QTS2.200918.033.7115981
Having this issue on Chromecast with Google TV and I have found a way to fix it which may indicate the source of the problem.
My media usually has multiple audio and subtitle streams. The first stream is usually AC3 5.1. The second stream may be commentary AC3 2.0. Then the last stream is an AAC 2.0 version of the first stream.
This works fine casting to a 3rd gen chromecast and airplay to a 3rd gen Apple TV. Even casting to the Chromecast with Google TV is fine. Just the Plex Player seems to have the issue.
I noticed that if I switch to the AAC 2.0 stream the video plays in the correct aspect so I created a few versions of the same film with different streams:
As original with multiple streams with AAC 2.0 as default. Plays correctly.
With a single AC3 5.1 stream. Video gets stretched vertically.
With single AAC 2.0 stream. Plays correctly.
So why would the audio stream cause the aspect to get messed up? I really dont understand.
I wonder if the audio changes are also prompting transcoding or remuxing.
If you look at the dashboard during playback, does it show Direct Play/Direct Stream/Transcode when it’s working vs. when it’s not?
CORRECTION: When the aspect is wrong the dashboard shows Direct Stream.
When aspect is correct (by using the commentary streams) it says Direct Play. Which is what I want as my server is pretty old and transcoding is the last thing it needs 
I should have mentioned the videos are MP4.
I’ve just uploaded an MKV of the same film and it plays without issue. (Says 480p (MPEG2VIDEO)Direct Stream in dash) I’m going to remove the AAC stream from the MP4 and see what happens.
EDIT: Removing AAC made no difference the aspect gets messed up again. This movie has two AC3 2.0 Commentary tracks. Selecting either of those causes the video aspect to correct itself.
A common file problem is a discrepancy between the aspect ratio stored in the container, vs. the aspect ratio encoded in the video stream itself.
Can you share the output from mediainfo on a problematic file? Does it show both “Display Aspect Ratio” and “Original Display Aspect Ratio”?
I’m curious if there’s anything about the files themselves that is contributing to this problem. If you’d like to share a file, I’m interested in looking.
Thank you for your help, hopefully I’m not hijacking the thread with an unrelated issue. Here is the info…
Media
Duration 1:51:49
Bitrate 2239 kbps
Width 720
Height 428
Aspect Ratio 2.35
Video Resolution SD
Container MP4
Video Frame Rate PAL
Web Optimized No
Video Profile main
Part
Duration 1:51:49
File Ghostbusters (2016).m4v
Size 1.76 GB
Container MP4
Web Optimized No
Video Profile main
Codec H264
Bitrate 1200 kbps
Anamorphic true
Bit Depth 8
Chroma Location left
Chroma Subsampling 4:2:0
Coded Height 432
Coded Width 720
Color Primaries bt470bg
Color Range tv
Color Space smpte170m
Color Trc bt709
Frame Rate 25 fps
Height 428
Level 4.0
Pixel Aspect Ratio 64:45
Profile main
Ref Frames 4
Stream Identifier 1
Width 720
Display Title SD (H.264)
Extended Display Title SD (H.264)
Codec AC3
Channels 6
Bitrate 448 kbps
Language English
Audio Channel Layout 5.1(side)
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 2
Display Title English (AC3 5.1)
Extended Display Title English (AC3 5.1)
Codec AC3
Channels 2
Bitrate 192 kbps
Language English
Audio Channel Layout stereo
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 3
Display Title English (AC3 Stereo)
Extended Display Title English (AC3 Stereo)
Codec AC3
Channels 2
Bitrate 192 kbps
Language English
Audio Channel Layout stereo
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 4
Display Title English (AC3 Stereo)
Extended Display Title English (AC3 Stereo)
Codec AAC
Channels 2
Bitrate 197 kbps
Language English
Audio Channel Layout stereo
Profile lc
Sampling Rate 48000 Hz
Stream Identifier 5
Display Title English (AAC Stereo)
Extended Display Title English (AAC Stereo)
Codec VOBSUB
Bitrate 10 kbps
Language English
Stream Identifier 6
Display Title English (VOBSUB)
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